B.C. skipper John Philip Stirling has pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy charge in Florida after proclaiming his innocence ever since his capture on the high seas in October 2011.
Stirling entered a guilty plea in a Miami courtroom Tuesday to a single count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 500 or more grams of cocaine on board a vessel subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.
More serious charges that could ... Read More …

Doug Vanalstine, a founding member of the United Nations gang, has pleaded guilty to his key role in a cocaine for cash conspiracy.
But Vanalstine is looking for lots of pre-trial credit for the three years he has spent in custody.
Vanalstine, and co-accused Daryl Johnson, had their sentencing hearing in B.C. Supreme Court Wednesday before Justice Carol Ross.
Both federal Crown and defence made a joint submission seeking 10 years for Vanalstine, 52, and ... Read More …

Jean Gaetan Gingras is already a senior citizen at 68. And now he is going to spend the next decade of his Golden Years in jail after being sentenced Wednesday in Vancouver for plotting to buy 50 kilos of cocaine in 2008.
Gingras seemed shocked when Justice Carol Ross read her decision to sentence him to 10 years. He repeated several times in French: “did she just give me 10 years?” His lawyer had asked ... Read More …

John Krokos, a Kamloops man who relocated to Puerto Vallarta, has been charged in L.A. with being the kingpin of a cocaine smuggling operation based in Mexico.
And Krokos is also alleged to have ordered kidnappings and torture of underlings who are believed to have crossed the gang.
Krokos has no criminal record in B.C. Nor does he own any property in the province. But an official in L.A. with the U.S. Attorney’s office confirmed ... Read More …

A Montreal man who admitted he arranged a 1986 bombing at a Surrey newspaper should go to jail for 14 years after being convicted in an RCMP reverse sting cocaine conspiracy, a prosecutor said Monday.
Federal Crown Martha Devlin said the RCMP case against Jean Gaetan Gingras, 68, was very similar to the operation in which gangster Jarrod Bacon was convicted. And she told Justice Carol Ross that Bacon was sentenced Friday to 12 years ... Read More …

Notorious Abbotsford gangster Jarrod Bacon was sentenced to 12 years in jail Friday for conspiring to traffic up to 100 kilograms of cocaine worth $3 million back in 2009.
Bacon, 29, was also given almost five years credit for the time he has been in jail awaiting trial, meaning his net sentence will be seven years and two months.
B.C. Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Austin Cullen said the sentence was on the high end ... Read More …

Crown prosecutor Peter LaPrairie thinks Jarrod Bacon deserves up to 21 years in jail for his role in a cocaine traffic conspiracy that was part of an undercover probe by the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit.
And LaPrairie told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Austin Cullen that Bacon’s co-accused Wayne Scott should spent 13-15 years in jail for his conviction in the same conspiracy.
LaPrairie said an aggravating factor in Bacon’s case was the fact he ... Read More …

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Austin Cullen ruled Wednesday that the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit did not entrap Wayne Scott by using an undercover agent in 2009 to set up a bogus cocaine deal.
Cullen, the Associate Chief Justice, rejected arguments from Scott’s lawyer Jeremy Guild that police had broken the law by creating a crime that swept up Scott, the maternal grandfather of Jarrod Bacon’s son.
Cullen had earlier convicted both Scott and Bacon, ... Read More …

Robbie Della Penna had a pretty succesful boxing career. Now he is doing most of his fighting in court.
The 41-year-old Vancouver man was arrested in Australia in January and charged with importing a “commercial quantity” of ecstasy. Few details are available. He made his first appearance in a Sydney Courtroom March 28. He is back in court there April 13.
Interestingly, the arrest came Jan. 25, just two weeks after federal prosecutors in Vancouver ... Read More …

Montrealers Jean Gaetan Gingras and Bruno Diquinzio were convicted in B.C. Supreme Court Monday of conspiracy to traffic cocaine.
And Gingras, who was the target of a lengthy undercover police investigation into the murder of Tara Singh Hayer, was also convicted of money laundering for exchanging more than $210,000 cash for cheques and bank drafts.
Gingras was a target in Project Expedio, a task force looking at the 1998 murder of Hayer and earlier plots ... Read More …

Convicted cocaine trafficker Wayne Scott put forth his arguments in B.C. Supreme Court last week about why the guilty verdict in his conspiracy case should be set aside.
His lawyer Jeremy Guild argued that the investigation leading to Scott’s arrest in Abbotsford in November 2009 was entrapment and therefore Scott should not be convicted.
Justice Austin Cullen heard the arguments over two days and has said he will come back with his judgment on the ... Read More …

Convicted cocaine trafficker Jarrod Bacon will not join an application by his co-accused Wayne Scott to argue entrapment in the case.
That paves the way for the 28-year-old admitted gangster to be sentenced after being convicted last Friday in B.C. Supreme Court.
Bacon made a brief appearance Wednesday via video-link to schedule his sentencing.
He and Scott, his former father-in-law, were each found guilty of one count of conspiracy to traffic cocaine after an undercover ... Read More …

Defence lawyers for accused cocaine traffickers Wayne Scott, 55, and Jarrod Bacon, 28, used their closing submissions to lay out why they each think their clients should be acquitted.
Scott lawyer Jeremy Guild had his turn Thursday and argued that Scott may have wanted in on the purchase of up to 100 kilos of cocaine, but he never planned to traffic it.
That means there really was no conspiracy to traffic, Guild argued.
And Bacon ... Read More …

Accused trafficker Jarrod Bacon lambasted the police Tuesday for the sting that landed him in jail and called the media coverage of his notorious family a relentless smear campaign.
And Bacon stuck to his story from Monday that he never intended to purchase 100 kilos of cocaine from a police agent dubbed GL, but was planning on a violent rip-off of a 10 kilo sample.
“The police knew I was going to rob (GL) a ... Read More …

Justice Austin Cullen ruled Monday morning that there was no abuse of process during the police investigation into Jarrod Bacon and Wayne Scott’s alleged involvement in a cocaine deal.
So he denied a defence application to throw out the evidence gathered by the police agent “GL” and enter stay of proceedings.
The defence has lost every Charter challenge it has made in this case so far. They will still be able to argue entrapment if ... Read More …

We still haven’t heard in court what Wayne Scott told police in a three-and-a-half hour interview after his arrest on Nov. 26, 2009.
But it was incriminating enough that his lawyer has been fighting for weeks to have it ruled inadmissible at his cocaine conspiracy trial.
On Friday, Justice Austin Cullen disagreed and allowed the statement into evidence.
The interview, which was video-taped and audio-taped, was to be played during the voir dire portion of ... Read More …